


Winter Tolls

by NAMINEM



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Child Ciel Phantomhive, Child Elizabeth Midford, Gen, Relationship between Ciel and Elizabeth is more platonic than anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-21 12:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9549974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NAMINEM/pseuds/NAMINEM
Summary: For a brief moment, the falling snow causes Ciel to pause and reflect upon his past and his present.





	

_“Look! Look, Ciel!” With every squeak of excitement, Elizabeth’s breath appeared upon the crisp, winter air. The girl reached up into the sky as if to embrace the puffs of falling white, and—as if she couldn’t possibly contain her delight any longer—she began to giggle and hop up and down, crushing snow under her boots. “Isn’t the snow so pretty?”_

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

_Ciel, bundled head to toe in fur and thick wool, crossed his arms to keep his small frame warm and shuffled hesitantly in place. “Er… Yes, it is.” This was his attempt at a wholehearted response, but his thoughts were mostly elsewhere._

_What if he walked in a way that caused snow to fill his boots? That wouldn’t be good. Or what if he slipped on hidden ice and fell deep into the cold? That would be dreadful._

_In his lifetime so far (seven years, to be exact), Ciel hadn’t had much opportunity to traverse through snow; the temporary nature of it in London and his frequently frail health had worked together to ensure that. Finally, however, his parents had conceded to let him and Elizabeth play outside the manor together—after much pleading from both children. But at this point, Ciel wasn’t so sure that his enthusiasm was still equal to what it had been._

_He didn’t like when snowflakes struck his face, melting on his skin to become London’s more familiar icy raindrops. And despite his layers and layers of winter clothing, his nose and fingertips were already cold, which made him uneasy._

_Serving to interrupt Ciel’s uncomfortable thoughts, his mother’s soft, graceful voice called out from somewhere behind him. “Don’t stray too far now, children.”_

_In reply, Elizabeth held her hand up to the side of her mouth and waved vigorously with the other. “We won’t, Aunt Rachel!”_

_Ciel sniffed and poked at a clump of snow with his boot._

_With that conversation finished, Elizabeth returned to enjoying the white powder that covered the estate. She began to skip around, kicking up snow as she went._

_Ciel thought she would tire herself out after a bit (that would have been the case if it were him, after all) but if anything, she only became more lively, and in no time at all, she was humming and leaping and spinning in tight circles with her arms outstretched. She was_ dancing.

_Whenever she moved—lunging or spinning—snow would spray out around her. It was free—nearly wild—but at the same time it was controlled and powerful. There was something familiar about it, too. It reminded Ciel a little of Aunt Francis. Elizabeth’s mother._

How does she do it? _he wondered in awe._

_Elizabeth stopped her humming a moment to speak, but she continued to twirl. “Dance with me, Ciel!”_

_Ciel pouted and crossed his arms more tightly around himself. “I don’t want to. It’s cold.”_

_She giggled. “You won’t feel so cold if you move around a little!”_

_“But Lizzie, what if I get sick again?”_

_Elizabeth ceased dancing. She looked over at Ciel, and her expression was softer—less playful. Then she approached him through the snow, stopping when she was about a foot away._

_At this distance, Ciel could see the snowflakes that had settled upon her pink bonnet, her winter shawl, and her short, vibrant yellow curls. But she did not seem bothered by their presence._

_“It’s okay.” She smiled sympathetically. “The snow won’t hurt you! I won’t let it!” Her large, green eyes reminded Ciel of summertime in the garden:_

_Warm, green grass._

_Birds chirping and flittering through the clear sky._

_His mother sitting in the shade and singing one of her favorite songs._

_His father admiring the roses, the family dog at his side._

_With these images in his thoughts, a warm comfort enveloped Ciel’s body._

_Looking like a drop of summer sunlight in a wintery world, Elizabeth gave a bright, inviting smile and extended her frost-covered mitten. “Come on. As long as we’re together, nothing bad will ever happen!”_

~

Ciel Phantomhive—head of the Phantomhive family, president of the Funtom Corporation, and Watchdog to the Queen (or to summarize: an orphan)—gazed at the evening snow dancing outside his study window and felt a bitter aching in his stomach.

If only things were as simple now as they had once been. When snow had been his greatest challenge and someone had been there to hold his hand.

Now he had to fight and kill in order to survive in England’s underworld, his only desire to take revenge on those who had humiliated him and his family. And through it all, a demon was and would be his only companion (if one could even call him such).

In a way, he was still in that winter, but it was so much more than that now. Instead of snowflakes on his cheeks, there was blood. And instead of joyful squeals and laughter, there were screams of agony.

He watched the snowflakes fall and collect on his window frame. He knew that snow in England was tenuous at best; it would melt soon enough. But for him, summer would never truly come. There would be no more afternoons in the garden with his parents; he could no longer appreciate the birds’ calls or the scent of roses wafting through the air. And not even the warm, green eyes of his fiancée could fix that.

A firm tapping on his study door withdrew the young Earl from his thoughts.

Ciel turned his chair back to face his desk and rested his arms on its cherry surface. He cleared his throat. “Come in.”

The door opened, and in stepped his dark butler, balancing a silver tray upon his fingertips.

“Good evening, My Lord,” Sebastian said, his red eyes fixed upon his master with steady purpose. Approaching the desk with his elegant, effortless stride, he held the tray out before Ciel. “This has just arrived.”

An envelope rested on the tray. At first glance, Ciel knew that the stationary was of superior quality. It was unblemished and unwrinkled, indicating that it had been hand-delivered with the utmost care and respect. The penmanship across the front was incredibly familiar, but to confirm the sender, Ciel removed the envelope from the tray and turned it over. The blood-red wax that sealed it shut was stamped with a crest: a coat of arms topped with a crown and flanked by a lion and a unicorn.

A letter from Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria.

Any thoughts of powdery snow or sunny smiles fled the forefront of Ciel’s mind, returning to their home in the distant, unexamined depths of his psyche.

Now was not the time for such idle and foolish thoughts.

He had work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I wrote for the January Challenge over at [KuroshitsujiFanfics on deviantArt](http://kuroshitsujifanfics.deviantart.com/). They'll be doing a challenge for every month of the year, and each time, there will be a prompt and a suggested pairing. (It's not required to use the pairing, but it is still given in case people want to try something new.) For January, the prompt was "snow" and the suggested pairing was CielxLizzie (specifically as children) so I came up with this piece. :)
> 
> My idea for this piece was for the snow to incite Ciel to think about his life - the good and bad - and for him to compare a memory from the past to his current situation. Hopefully I was successful and created something interesting! I certainly enjoyed writing it!
> 
> Thank you for reading my story!


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